The wife and daughter of Christos Karavellas, a former Siemens Hellas
executive who is wanted in Greece for questioning in connection to
bribery charges, as well as yet another defendant on the same case,
were decided to be released from custody in Korydallos jail. Martha
Karavella, wife of Christos Karavellas, and Emmanouil Stavrianos will
have to post 60,000 euros in bail each and agree not to leave the
country, while Salina Karavella, the fugitive's daughter, will have to
post 30,000 euros in bail.

In particular, the court ruling said that Emmanouil Stavrianos has to
be released because he did not try to leave the country, he cannot
commit new offences since he is no longer a Siemens executive, and
furthermore, he has health problems.

The ruling on the release of Christos Karavellas' wife and daughter was
based on similar grounds.

Two of the remaining five arrestees for the abduction of shipping
magnate Periklis Panagopoulos testified Thursday to the magistrate.
It's Giorgos Trouboukis and Giannis Thodis. Shortly before his
testimony, Trouboukis told reporters he was involved in the abduction
because he was and still is afraid for his life. He also said he feels
lucky being a defendant and not dead.

The first five members of the gang were remanded in custody after their
deposition on Wednesday, while police are close to shedding light to
the murder of two businessmen by the members of the gang.

All five defendants, Apostolos Petrakis, Giorgos Katsaganis, Emmanouil
Skarlatos, Aristomenis Kleftogiannis and Politimi Georga, who are
suspected members of a ring led by Panagiotis Vlastos, denied the
charges pressed against them.

While new evidence on the gang's activities is surfacing, the
revelation that the Agia Prison chief Mr Kyriakakis was allegedly
involved in the transfer of ringleader Panagiotis Vlastos forced the
Justice Minister to suspend him and order a sworn administrative
inquiry.

In the meantime, Deputy Interior Minister Christos Markogiannakis
praised the Greek Police for breaking up the gang while visiting the
Athens police headquarters.

SYN president Alexis Tsipras underlined the need for alternative state
intervention in the financial system during his meeting with the Union
of Commercial Bank Employees.

In his speech, Mr. Tsipras characteristically said: ÔTaking the
opportunity of today's meeting with the Union of Commercial Bank
Employees, we repeat our proposal for alternative political
intervention of the state in the financial system and state inspection
of part of the financial system to prevent uncontrollable activities of
banks leading to creation of cartels burdening consumers and society in
general. Bankers should respect collective agreements with the
Federation of Bank Unions instead of submitting purging proposals
targeted at transferring their losses to employeesÔ.

Mr. Tsipras stressed that PASOK and ND privatization policy has
completely failed leading to dissolution of economy and labour
relations and shrinkage of the public sector.

The president of the Commercial Bank's Employees Union George
Konstantopoulos said that he had briefed SYN president on the problems
of employees.

Two attacks with gas canisters targeted against municipal police, five
minutes apart from each other, occurred on Wednesday. Unknown people
planted self- made explosive devices ( using gas canisters) under the
car of Papagos municipality and at the entrance of Holargos municipal
police station destroying the car in the first incident and causing
material damage to the building in the second incident.

In a separate incident , an unknown group, having heads covered in
hoods, threw three Molotov bombs at the building housing Sports Union,
in Sykea causing material damage.

The Group of Eight industrial countries on Wednesday agreed to a
statement setting the goal of holding global warming to an increase of
2 degrees Celsius and targets for emissions cuts. Sweden, Germany and
Britain expressed satisfaction at the draft declaration but China,
India and Russia reacted to adopt specific targets for gas emission
cuts.

In parallel, the G8 developed nations promised an additional $25
billion in annual aid to Africa for the period 2004-2010.

The agenda of talks also included Pakistan. The G8 leaders expressed
solidarity with Pakistan in its fight against the Taliban and called on
Afghanistan to ensure credible and safe elections- scheduled for
August, 20- reflecting the people's will.

The G8 said it was committed to finding a diplomatic solution to Iran's
nuclear program and they would review the situation at a G20 meeting of
developed and developing countries in Pittsburgh on September, 24 and
25. If there would be no progress by then the G8 leaders would have to
take decisions, indicating that tougher sanctions might be imposed if
Tehran continued to resist negotiations. They also expressed concern at
the political crisis after presidential elections on June, 12.

North Korea missile tests could not be out of the agenda of talks. The
G8 statement condemned recent missile tests in North Korea, saying they
were a danger to peace and stability, urging North Korea to engage in
dialogue and cooperation. A Summit meeting on nuclear security will be
held in Washington, in March

Five members of the gang that had organized the kidnapping of shipping
magnate Periklis Panagopoulos were remanded in custody after
interrogation. They all denied charges. New evidence on the criminal
activities of the gang keep coming to light, among them revelation that
the director of Agias prison, in Hania had been intervening for the
transfer of the gang's mastermind Panagiotis Blastos. Justice Minister
has immediately ordered his relief from the post and conduction of in
depth investigation.

Following interrogation procedures, 5 suspects in Periklis Panagopoulos
kidnapping case were held in detention on charges of being members of a
gang with a large number of criminal activities. The names of the
alleged suspects are Apostolos Petrakis, George Katasayiannis,
Emmannuel Skarlatos, Aristomenis Kleftoyiannis, and Politimi Georga who
deny any involvement in the kidnap case but have no idea of their
recorded telephone conversation in the hands of the police.

All 5 suspects were charged with several counts of assault, supply and
possession of explosives and moral instigation. Another five suspects
are facing interrogator on Friday while 5 members of the gang also held
in detention will be interrogated on Monday.